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The Netherlands - TM Audio, Renkus-Heinz distributor for the Netherlands, has equipped two auditoriums in the City Concert Hall in Leiden with IC Live digitally beam steerable PA systems, including one system finished in metallic gold paint to match the room's décor.

The City Concert Hall is an historic building housing several multipurpose rooms, including the 19th century 838-seat Great Hall, the new 349 seat Aalmarkt Hall and the 250 seat Bree Hall.

To coincide with the opening of the Aalmarkt Hall, new audio systems were installed in both the Great Hall and the Aalmarkt.

The objective was to expand the halls' ability to host a wide range of uses ranging from jazz and classical concerts and stage musicals to corporate presentations and lectures.

TM Audio project manager Reinier Bruijns explains that although the client's original tender had called for separate sp

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South Africa - Stage Audio Works, based in Johannesburg, has concluded a licence manufacturing agreement with the Total Solutions Group to manufacture the Total Fabrications range of industry standard aluminium truss products in South Africa. The agreement was signed at the end of August 2010 whilst Gustav Barnard and Jaco Kruger, head of manufacturing, visited the Total Solution Group Headquarters and factory in Birmingham UK.

The major benefits of this agreement allow clients in South Africa and Africa to access the range of proven UK truss designs, with local manufacture and back-up service with comprehensively reduced international freight costs.

Gustav Barnard, Stage Audio Works technical director commented, "It is such an honour to be able to manufacture Total Fabrication products in our factory. We are enthused and aim to maintain strict quality control standards a

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UK - White Light has recently helped the Regent's College Conference Centre in central London upgrade its lighting system with some of the latest lighting and control technology.

White Light has supplied the centre with 10 Coemar Parlite LED fixtures in silver. A replacement for the traditional Par Can, the ParLite LED offers three-colour mixing and interchangeable lenses offering beam angles ranging from the standard 12degrees up to a 110degree flood, all in a compact fixture that weighs just 3.5kg. The Regent's College ParLites were supplied with the optional IP65 rear panel kit, which converts the fixture for use outdoors.

The centre also needed a system to control their new fixtures, and opted for LSC's Clarity software-based control system. White Light supplied Regent's College with a single DMX universe system and an Enttec DMX USB Pro interface to output DMX data from t

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UK - PLASA is hosting a special update day for members on legislative developments and business issues. The event, which takes place on Thursday 25 November at ETC's offices in West London, will see HR specialist Clive Payne providing members with an overview of recent changes and the implications for their businesses.

In addition to a focus on legislative issues, the day will also feature presentations from Simon Miller of Allan Chapman & James, who will provide an update on recent changes to the insurance market and how members can keep insurance costs down, Krystyna Gibbons of Westfield Health, who will outline the options for a cost-effective alternative to private healthcare and Paul Robson of Medialease who will talk about leasing funding, providing an overview of current market conditions and how members can get into the best possible shape to attract leasing funding when

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At The Q Awards - Florence Welch, of Florence and the Machine, was a double-winner at the Q Awards in London taking best female and best track for You've Got The Love. Take That also made their first public appearance since Robbie Williams rejoined them in July. The band, whose comeback single, The Flood, and new album, Progress, are both due out next month, won the magazine's hall of fame award.

Kasabian were named best act in the world. Take That, who were sneaked into the awards to avoid the red carpet, were led on stage by Gary Barlow to collect their award. Another newly reformed band - Suede - picked up the Q inspiration award.

On The Move? - Almost €400,000 has been spent in the search for a new home for Ireland's national theatre, the Abbey - but so far without success, reports newspaper.

Arts minister Mary Hanafin told th

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UK - Gearhouse South Africa supplied full technical production to the 2010 Loerie Awards staged at the Good Hope Centre in Cape Town for the second year running.

The event was again produced by H-Factor, with a production and set design by H-Factor and The Loerie Awards Committee, to celebrate the most innovative creative talent in advertising, communication design and experiential media from Africa and the Middle East. The two nights of Award presentations is the biggest seated awards show in the country, and a high pressure event in terms of design and technical production, requiring plenty of invention and originality to match the occasion.

The 2010 event energised the skills and resources of Gearhouse's Sound, Lighting, AV, Media, Rigging, Structures and Power departments. Sister company Sets, Drapes,Screens built the set and supplied all the scenic elements, and the proje

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UK - Just past its tenth birthday and The Lowry at Salford Quays in Salford has something to celebrate by having the first installation anywhere in the UK of d&b audiotechnik's latest E6 loudspeaker. The E6 replaces the E3, d&b audiotechnik's most popular loudspeaker ever.

"We had decided to go with E3s," said Dave Woodward, technical manager at The Lowry. "We've needed delays in the Lyric since we opened 10 years ago, but they were value engineered out at the time. Virtually everything that tours here carries d&b loudspeaker systems; so we made our decision almost by default."

The Lyric seats 1,730 with a deep circle and upper circle. "A lot of what we present here has TV actors performing drama, so the need for delay reinforcement was twofold. One, TV stars don't seem to project as well as regular theatre actors, and two, these shows generally attrac

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USA - When Pyxis Industries in Riverside, California was asked by North Coast Church to bid on the design and installation of sound systems at two different locations, owner Chad Costanzo commented, "These installations had to come together extremely quickly. But our past experience with Electro-Voice gave us total confidence that everything would work out fine. And it did."

Based in Vista, California, North Coast's two newest purpose-built venues are North Coast Live and The Edge. The vendor that had originally been retained to design and install sound reinforcement systems for the sites had to pull out of the project only two months before opening day at both facilities. Pyxis got the call from North Coast, and Costanzo went to work with systems engineer Alan DiCato, deciding how to handle the project within the church's allocated budget.

While the previous provide

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USA / Europe - Monitor engineer Ramon Morales is currently on tour with Lady Gaga. The production is all in-ears, including all the musicians, the dancers and the audio crew. "I've been a huge fan of Sensaphonics several years now," he states. "In fact, I basically insist on wearing the 2MAX when I mix. I've tried pretty much everything out there, and there's really nothing that can match it for sound quality and comfort. On Lady Gaga, the whole band is on Sensaphonics, and most of the techs are wearing them, and others are on the 3MAX as well. Everyone is really happy with them."

In terms of hearing protection, Morales sees a major advantage to Sensaphonics soft-gel silicone construction. "It's not just a comfort thing, although that's part of it," he says. "The silicone gives better isolation than anything else, which keeps everything you don

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USA - American Pop-Rockers Passion Pit have been touring extensively since 2008's debut EP Chunk of Change propelled them firmly in to the limelight. They've since been riding high with 2009's follow up album Manners.

2010 has seen no let-up for the Massachusetts-based five-piece; this past Autumn they supported Muse for a string of North American dates. Tour manager Andrew Dobbins and monitor engineer Francois Pare - both a part of London-based live music production house Cato Music - spec'd the equipment for the tour, including Shure PSM900 in-ear monitors.

"Before the tour we were looking to try something new - mainly because we weren't very happy with the system we were using at the time. We were getting a lot of interference and the sound quality wasn't great. I'd heard about this new Shure system so I thought I'd try them on a tour that started back in

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USA - At Chicago's United Centre, 16 Martin MAC III Profile spot luminaires play a key role in generating excitement and raising the energy levels for more than 200 sports and entertainment events per year.

Last year, the United Centre production team took a hard look at their ageing lighting gear and decided it was time to upgrade. Brady Tieman, technical production manager at the United Centre, reports, "Eight of the fixtures were a pan and tilt model that was prone to frequent failures; they spent too much time in the shop which resulted in countless hours of programming to come up with workarounds for defective fixtures.

"The other eight moving mirror fixtures were over 12 years old and had become too expensive to maintain. Unlike a touring act, we don't have full time light techs on staff to quickly repair moving lights." The tech team brought their challen

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Russia - The Bolshoi Theatre in Moscow, national theatre of Russia and home to the Bolshoi Ballet, the Bolshoi Ballet Academy and the Bolshoi Opera, is presently closed to its millions of annual visitors while undergoing extensive renovations. The doors were shut to the main building in 2005 and it is scheduled to reopen in a year's time. The Theatre has undergone many renovations in its time, but nothing anywhere near as major as this undertaking which is estimated at US$730 million and is being entirely funded by the federal government.

Early in October, 110 cartons packed with new lighting equipment left the Philips Selecon Auckland factory in New Zealand journeyed halfway around the world ready to take part in this crucial preservation project. In all, 561 Philips Selecon luminaires will grace the lighting rigs for the grand stage of the Bolshoi Theatre when it opens its doo

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USA - Camelback Toyota, a dealership located in the heart of Phoenix, is receiving a lot of attention for its recent renovations. It just built a 62,000sq.ft showroom alongside a 65,000sq.ft service facility with many added conveniences.

"What continues to make the biggest impression on all of our guests, however, is the digital technology," said Kim McKay, customer relations manager at Camelback. A digital signage network from Unified Brand and Scala is one of the major components of the 22-year-old facility's complete makeover.

The goal of building this showroom was to create an environment that does not resemble a car dealership. The new facility is equipped with high-end amenities, including free Wi-Fi, a cafe, high-tech media room, kids' play area, outdoor patio and massage area with in-chair TVs. Accordingly, Camelback did an in-depth search to find a sophistic

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UK - Sir Cliff Richard celebrated his 70th birthday in October with a week of concerts at the Royal Albert Hall, complete with a swing band and Midas PRO6s for front of house and monitors.

As the shows were more complex than Sir Cliff's usual live appearances, both PRO6s were full to capacity. Engineers Mike 'Bunny' Warren (FOH) and John 'JJ' James (monitors), who have worked with Richard for 12 and 30 years respectively, were new to the PRO6, and both were unanimous in their praise for the system.

Bunny felt the PRO6 had been a boon for the notoriously difficult acoustics of the Albert Hall. "It's definitely helped in this environment," he says. "The EQ just does what you want it to do, and I've been able to add definition between different instruments, which has been especially useful as 24 of my 56 inputs are brass. To get a difference between each of the sax

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Russia - Tannoy's QFlex digitally steerable column array loudspeakers have been installed in one of Russia's most recent new-build churches - in the village of Usovo, on the western outskirts of Moscow.

Named Temple Spasa Nerukotvornogo Obraza, loosely translated as the Parish Church of the Saviour 'Not Made by Hands', the grand and imposing new complex was designed by the architect Vyacheslav Izhikov, and completed in record time last year - with the inaugural service taking place on 29 August.

The construction project was initiated by the local community and funded by Rosneft, one of Russia's largest oil and gas companies, with support from the Russian government and the formal opening ceremony was attended by Russian Prime Minister, and former President, Vladimir Putin.

Tannoy's distribution partner in Russia, I.S.P.A Engineering, was brought to the project by main AV con

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Singapore - An Aviom Pro16Personal Mixing System (WFX Booth 1220) was recently installed at Aldersgate Methodist Church in Queenstown, Singapore. The church called on CODA Audio Services, an audio design and system provider based in Singapore, for a structured cabling and equipment upgrade.

One of the biggest challenges the church faced prior to the equipment upgrade was the building's hexagon shape, with the pulpit centred on one of the six sides. The live band is located directly to the right of the pulpit and the choir is positioned on the left. The separation of the choir and the band, along with the uncommon shape of the worship hall, added to the unfavourable nuances of the audio system.

With this type of design, speech intelligibility was a prime consideration for selecting the new audio equipment. The church wanted parishioners to be able to hear the services clearly,

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UK - Playing nine arenas across the UK, Dr Who Live is in full swing. With 23 dates currently confirmed and multiple shows per day in main venues the tour needed a stage floor that could resist extermination. Le Mark's Consor floor was chosen.

The low profile Consor Stage Floor resists indentations allowing heavy items such as camera dollys, flight cases and the odd Dalek to roll over the floor with minimal drag. Most scuffs and marks are also easily removed with Le Mark's specialist cleaners keeping the floor looking fresh and presentable.

"We're now well into the tour and so far the floor has been brilliant, it works really well with the shows lighting and was a doddle to install" says Lianne Bruce, BBC deputy production manager for Dr Who Live.

(Jim Evans)

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USA - Bandit Lites played a key part in an historical event when the Grand Ole Opry House needed to be restored following last spring's devastating Nashville flood.. The day the rains stopped, and before the water started to recede, Opry lighting director Tyler Bryan and other Opry staffers were inside the Opry House in canoes. The entire stage and seating area was under several feet of water. The devastation the floodwaters left behind was unimaginable. One of the first calls Bryan made was to national director of sales & installations Chris Barbee to begin the task of restoring the storied building.

Four days after the water receded, Barbee and John Jenkinson toured the facility with Bryan to evaluate the damage, create a plan for the renovation and provide cost estimates for the work. The planning and decision making time were critically short as the Opry's 85th birthday cele

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Belgium - Tait Technologies, the joint venture between Tait Towers and Frederic Opsomer's System Technologies' team - is well on its way to consolidating the launch of the company in early 2010 with the activation of its rental division as of 31 October. Heading up the new division will be Dirk DHulster, an industrial engineer with over 20 years' experience in the visualisation industry.

Says CEO Frederic Opsomer, "The activation of our rental division is another milestone in the deployment of Tait Technologies' full range of activities throughout Europe."

Headquartered in Belgium, Tait Technologies offers clients in the entertainment, corporate and architectural markets solutions ranging from the rental of 'off-the-shelf' stage products to the design and development of custom-made, project-specific innovations. Over the past months, Tait Technologies has brought a s

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USA - When Scott Chmielewski, president of Digital Media Designs, put a pair of grandMA2 full-size consoles through their paces at Virgin Mobile's FreeFest, a day-long music and dance extravaganza, he deployed the grandMA2's new 2.0 software.

FreeFest attracted some 40,000 fans to the Merriweather Post Pavilion and surrounding grounds at Columbia, Maryland where headliners included Joan Jett, Lucacris and Chmielewski, whose Digital Media Designs served as the designer, programmer and production provider for the event and was responsible for the dance stage and one of the two primary stages.

"Everything went exceptionally well," he notes. "I was able to previz the show about a week before the event and, with the use of grandMA 3D, I was able to have most of the show done before we ever loaded in. Running the software on my MacBook Pro I never saw a

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China - The new Opera House in Guangzhou installed a comprehensive intercom system from Riedel Communications. Riedel delivered a digital intercom solution combining a Performer digital partyline system and an Acrobat wireless intercom installation. Responsible for the installation was Leifull Light & Sound.

The Guangzhou Opera House is one the three largest theaters in Asia. To provide the most comprehensive communications infrastructure for the control room, director and technicians, the opera house installed a combination of wired Riedel Performer partyline and wireless Riedel Acrobat intercom technology.

At the heart of the installation are two Performer C44 system interfaces. Performer's digital signal chain provides high quality digital audio. A total of 12 Performer C3 beltpacks are installed at the opera house. They are complemented by eight Performer CD-2 desktop cont

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UK - Richard Martin Lighting continues to support lighting designer Martin Kempton on the latest series of Harry Hill's TV Burp. The four-time BAFTA winning ITV show uses a small and selective amount of lights to create a bright yet 'homely' look to compliment the set.

The rig comprises of Mac 250's, Mac TW1's and Pixel Par 90's on the floor. It also includes Alpha Spot 575 HPE's.

"The rig is very low indeed so it was important that they were silent. Secondly, being tungsten lamps, they are very good at the warmer colours - reds and ambers," says Richard Martin.

(Jim Evans)

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Australia - Darwin's Marrara Sporting Complex and TIO Stadium is the premier outdoor stadium in the Northern Territory and it regularly hosts such sporting events as Australian football and cricket. Every two years it also hosts the Arafura Games, where more than 4,500 competitors from over 40 nations compete in 19 disciplines. In addition to several of the events, the stadium is used for the opening and closing ceremonies.

In late 2009 an upgrade of the audio system was approved and local consultants GHD were appointed to prepare the specification. With the heat, rain and humidity of Darwin's tropical environment, careful consideration was given to the type of loudspeakers to be used in the installation and Community R and WET Series were selected.

National contracting company Eo Design was awarded the project and went on site in early June 2010 with a completion date of end

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Spain - As the 2010 FIFA World Cup Championship team from Spain returned home, they had waiting for them one of the largest public celebrations ever to be held. A crowd of more than 2m ecstatic fans would gather to celebrate their first World Cup title with an evening filled with congratulatory speeches and a concert headlined by multi-platinum artist David Bisbal. Behind the event, lighting designer David Gavilan and Mario Ortega were ready to tackle all challenges with the assistance of 122 VARI*LITE luminaires.

"We first became involved with the World Cup celebration through the Spanish Royal Federation of Football who we had worked with previously on a few other events," says Gavilan.

"When we were putting the initial design together we had to take into consideration three main elements; with the number of members of the audience being around 2m, we would ha

  1. Coemar stars in London's West End
  2. Welcome To Wales with DiGiCo
  3. iLive in control at Kent classical concert
  4. AKG Microphones at NYC's Brill Building
  5. Tunnel lights react to pedestrians in Clink Street
  6. iLive takes the stage in Georgia theatre
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